Opinion | Why top students will lose out if exams are cancelled by coronavirus
- ‘Norm-referencing’, a system likely to be used in the event of a sudden surge of Covid-19 cases cancelling Hong Kong exams, could dampen top performers’ achievements
- Students at new schools or those in lower bands could also suffer since the system is partly based on data from schools’ previous cohorts
Many of the exams cancelled this year in Britain and elsewhere amid the global coronavirus pandemic would have been conducted by two awarding bodies: Edexcel and Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE).
These exams measure a student’s performance against predetermined criteria. An individual’s score is absolute, and is not affected by the performance of other students, irrespective of their ability.
Hong Kong is infamous for its exam-dominated culture that relies heavily on the high-stakes DSE (Diploma of Secondary Education) exam to certify student achievement. Like the cancelled CAIE and Edexcel exams, these written exams, set to take place from April 24 to May 25 barring emergency cancellations, also measure performance against set criteria.
In the event that some of the DSE exams are scrapped because of a sudden surge in coronavirus infections, the authorities will adopt a new assessment mechanism. This will include credits for a candidate’s secondary school performance and take into account the records of previous candidates from the same school, according to So Kwok-sang, secretary general of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.
This proposed assessment mechanism is similar to the approach Edexcel and CAIE is now using to calculate students’ grades in the absence of examinations. The final grade would be a composite grade, based on teacher assessment of each student, the ranking of each student and the historical performance of schools in these examinations.
